Komatsu PC60-7: Yet ANOTHER Hydraulic Line Failure Today

[Mark A Weiss]

Bought this machine in 2020. First four days, a pilot line failed. Fixed that myself.
Track broke later that year. Bought new tracks, fixed that.
Could not get the right track adjuster to move. Replaced that and replaced both tracks in 2021.
This year, had a pilot line under the house fail. This was around the time I had my second heart attack, so could not deal with it myself. Required the cab be removed, so hired a diesel mechanic to come out and do that. He replaced the one line that failed. Said the others looked okay.
Then I had the track falling off issue, and that involved replacing upper rollers and dealing with a frozen check valve on a track adjuster on the left side. That turned out much more costly than I was prepared for, but well okay, now I can use the machine again.
So today, first time using the machine, barely 15 minutes in and I'm noticing that while boom up is smooth and has good control, boom down does nothing until I push the control almost halfway, then it lets go suddenly. So I make a mental note of that and keep moving logs and bucking firewood with a saw.
In the next five minutes, moving the boom or curling the bucket resulted in loud scraping noises, making me think "didn't I just recently grease the joints, why does it sound like metal one metal?" And then I realized the sound of hydraulic pump cavitation, that loud whirring sound, took over and that's when I stopped and hopped off the machine to look under and see this:


The thing is it happened quickly this time, so I doubt it's a pilot line. Fluid GUSHED out of the underside of the house, more on the right side of the machine this time.

To date, I've spent close to $9K on repairs to this machine since purchase and it seems like something else breaks immediately after the last repair. I'm retired on a fixed income and basically used up all of my savings on this machine, which I'd originally bought as an investment that I could hopefully get my money back out of it when I sell it.
I've yet to find out which line failed this time, but it looks like I need to invest ten or twenty grand to have all the lines replaced or this is going to keep happening. To do that, I'd have to take a mortgage on the house. The other option is to put the machine on the market and get what I can for it. Not the best investment, after all.

 

[Tags]

Sorry to hear about your machine issues Mark, but, and this is a big but, all of things happening is not something that is unheard of on an older machine. Mostly the reason people get rid of a high hour machine. All machines cost money to run and maintain, an older piece of equipment costs more.

The company I work at has 15 employees, out of that 15 we have eight legit operators, the other 7 are laborers/can move a machine around guys. Something breaks everyday.

Everyday

We have machines anywhere from 100hrs to 7000hrs. We typically turn over machines before they start to nickle and fine us to death.

Equipment is not cheap and is rarely a profitable investment.

I do understand your frustration for sure. Unfortunately, this is kinda how owning equipment goes.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

When I bought this, I realized there would be SOME maintenance, but I figured I'd get some light use out of it and resell it. Instead, it's pushing me into bankruptcy. Ugh.
The thing is, I cannot sell it if it's not working. If I could find a buyer, I would not get my investment back out. If it's repaired and working, I could probably get most of what I paid plus documented repairs, back at sale time.

In hindsight, I'm thinking it would have made more sense dollar-wise to rent a machine for $400 a day plus shipping plus tax, than to own and maintain a machine for the 3-4 times I really needed it.

 

[Welder Dave]

I think you may have been overly excited to buy it and didn't have someone experienced do a proper inspection on it. It's more common than a lot of people think but you have the machine now.
You should have stopped as soon as you realized something wasn't working right and investigated. However, you don't need to panic yet. First thing to do is try and find where the oil is coming from. Then you can assess what all needs to be fixed. It may just need 1 hose or an o-ring or something else fairly simple. You don't automatically have to replace all the hoses. Find the problem before you assume the worst.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

My inspection revealed nothing, unfortunately. Unlike the first pilot line failure where it was obvious where the leak was, this one is again, like the one in March, coming from under the cab. The last line that burst under the cab required a crane and a full day for the mechanic to repair and cost me a small fortune. I wanted him to replace all of the lines, but at $350 each and there's a dozen or so, it would have exceeded my ability to afford. So it looks like we have to get the crane up here again and go through another round of this. What I don't want is to replace one line at a time, and have another one burst 15 minutes later.

Originally, I wanted a mini excavator, not a big hulking monster of a machine, but the minis were over twice the asking price, used and not that many for sale. This was about the only machine in my affordability range (I had saved up $30K since 1960 and was worried about hyper inflation making it worthless in a few years, so I wanted to invest in gold originally, but no gold exchanges would accept cash, so the next best thing I thought would be heavy equipment. Little did I know...

 

[Coaldust]

Damn. That sucks. Very good chance the hose you just replaced, burst. Because the guy at the hose place that built it was working at Burger King the week before. At least, he’s working. Probably not sober, but he did make it in to work long enough to build you a hose.

Can’t tell the difference between one wire and two wire.

If I was within driving distance of a state, or two, I’d fix that ol’e hoe for you for free. But, we would have to sit for a spell, so you could spin a yarn or two.

 

[Welder Dave]

Where did the hose come from? $350 a hose on a mini-ex seems really excessive. I'd think getting a hose matched at a good hyd. hose shop could save you some money. Is there by chance an access panel on the cab floor?
I had something similar but not quite as hard to replace. When I had the engine out of my track loader getting rebuilt, I asked about replacing the main pressure hose coming off the hyd. pump. It was rubbed almost to the reinforcing wire in one spot. The shop said not to worry about it because it was a 4 wire hose so I put it back on. I think part of the problem was it was a bit of a complicated hose. It had to go back from the pump then had a 90 deg. steel elbow and curved up around the back of the engine on the firewall and came down with a threaded fitting on the end of the hose. That fitting had to be at the exact angle in order to line up with a hose that was clamped in place. Being such a stiff hose you couldn't twist it. Well it lasted over 10 years but blew a couple years ago and made quite a mess. I had the replacement made in 2 hoses but still couldn't hook it up as original. The hose it connected to underneath couldn't be clamped as it was. I looked at it pretty close and figured it was OK to leave the closest clamp off. While looking for where all the oil was coming from it was a little hard to figure out. While looking I also discovered one of the steering clutch valves was leaking. More to fix.

It wasn't the worst hose I ever had to change though. The worst was the main hose going to the control valve. I can't remember if was from the power beyond valve to run the backhoe. Some idiot tried to use non Cat hose with Cat reusable fittings and stuck pieces of sheet metal and plastic in the fittings to make up for the smaller OD of the hose. It came apart when I was using the backhoe. I shut the machine off as soon as I lost swing. I was in a soft spot with the stabilizers down so couldn't even pull the machine out where it was easier to work on. I had to crawl under the machine with very little room and take the belly pan off. To do that I had to lay in the 60L's of oil it had pumped out! Not fun and to make matters worse the belly pan wouldn't drop down far enough to remove. It has to drop down and then come backwards to come off the track frame cross bar. I had to take a shovel and try and lift and drop the belly pan enough to get it to slide back. 20 minutes later I finally had it off and could pull it forward a couple feet. Then I had to crawl back under and lay in the oil to get the hose off. Had some choice words when I saw the perfectly scived hose pulled out of the fitting and a metal tag stuck in the fitting. The other end of the hose had a chunk of plastic used as a spacer. Got a new hose made and used an extra fitting so I could swivel it in the exact direction. I didn't want to fight with it trying to put it back on. Picked up 3 pails of oil and headed back to put the hose on. Had to lay in the oil again but it went pretty good. Didn't need to put the belly pan on to drive the machine out of the soft area I was digging in. What a BS PIA situation that was!

I'm only telling you all this because I've been there as I'm sure a lot of other members have been too. We all feel your frustration. If your cab has to come off at least you know what's involved so hopefully it goes a little faster. If it's same hose check the pressure rating and if it is correct for your machine you could get a higher rated hose. Have also heard of some brands of hose being more prone to failing. Sorry I can't remember which brand, might have even been Parker. I do know that similar looking 2 wire hoses can have quite a bit of difference in their pressure ratings. I got some Rayco 1/2" that is rated for 5100 PSI from a farm type store. I needed it on the weekend and they were the only place open. They did blow the foam plugs through it and it is very good hose. Good luck with your repairs and hope they aren't too expensive.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

I could spin a yarn or three just chatting about this excavator and all it's issues. No shortage of stuff to talk about, fer sure! And on top of that, my daughter's car is in the shop again, this time for a refrigerant leak, and the refrigerant line costs $430, plus a similar amount in labor to replace it, so about $1000, after putting $2400 into it last month for brakes and tires. On top of $97K in medical bills for my heart attack in March. All I can think of is the view in bankruptcy court.

I think the hoses were built by a reputable local company. I've bought from them some pilot lines myself 3 years ago. There were over $100 each and the larger hydraulic lines (like those used on the boom) were quoted at $350 each.
The mechanic replaced one pilot line that was hissing and leaking fluid at a much lower pace.
Whatever went this time was something MUCH bigger. Everything dumped out within seconds. About 15 gallons of fluid on the ground, creating a lake under the machine. And the sounds the machine made as it happened, sounded just like when the bucket is scraping against a big boulder, but all I was doing was curling the bucket! When I heard that, followed by the sudden onset of aloud whine from the hydraulic pump, I shut her down pronto. The whole event went from relatively normal with just the jerking problem when I try to boom down, to full on disaster in just ten seconds.

Good god, laying in oil under the muddy bog with low clearance is the stuff of nightmares! My days of doing that sort of thing are pretty much over with. Won't be long I'll be needing assisted living, 'cept that I can't afford assisted living.

 

[Welder Dave]

Sorry to hear you had a heart attack but very glad you're still with us. I'm glad I'm in Canada after being diagnosed with cancer. All the medical costs are covered. I'm on a trial drug that costs $400/pill but is fully covered. I could never afford it, well over $100K in pills so far and I think I have to take them for the rest of my life. For standard prescriptions I have to pay 20% so it's maybe $100/month.

As for your leak, if it dumped all the oil very quickly it might not be from under the cab. It really sucks though. All you can do is try and figure out where it's coming from and go from there. If I had another major leak like I did on the Cat, I'd have to have someone help me. I took the articulation valve off the grader last year and got it working but it quit working one way so I need to take it off again. Not looking forward to it and hoping to get some help. Lost 2 pails of oil in the process. I'm going to get metal caps for the lines though. The oil slowly leaked past the plastic caps over a week and a half. Was barely dripping when I took the lines off. Now I know.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Yeah, it was unexpected, but I'd been on a high fat low carb diet (lost 40lbs that way) and was eating 3 strips of bacon with eggs for breakfast daily for the last year. When I went to consult a hernia doctor about my inguinal hernia, the nurse said my BP was dangerously high. About a week later, after a bunch of stressful crap (well pump failure, truck power steering gearbox failure) I had the first heart attack. March 15 landed me in ER with the second one, ironically happened while in a cardiologist office for a consultation on the first attack. At least I got great medical care. They were competent all the way. The experience restored my faith in modern medicine.

When I jumped off the machine and looked underneath, the gush of fluid appeared to be coming from the right side of the underside of the house. Somewhere under the manifold/valve where all the lines converge. There's some dried leaves at the bottom, but saw no oil leaks of that magnitude evident there. Not coming from the car or the final drives either. Definitely under the house on the right hand side. Whatever it was, there was a really bad metal against metal grinding noise shortly before the pump started to whine from a lack of oil. All of this happened in under 10 seconds.

Not such a good investment. Turning into a money pit. But I have to get it running, else won't be able to sell it. And I need it to move a MEP803A generator set (1140lbs) off my truck onto a pad soon.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Finally got a diesel mechanic out here today. With a crane, pull the cab off the machine. He found out that a large high pressure hydraulic line burst open (4" slit wide open) inside the Rotex. He's going to work up an estimate, but I can sense it's going to be expensive.

Since the machine is worthless as is, I need to get it running again before I can sell it. I'll need to take out a loan for the repairs, but on $1,067 a month retirement income, I'll likely have to sell the machine this year to pay the loan off.

It's been a terrible year. And on June 30, my solar panels got hit by lightning. 58 years on this mountain and this is the first time I got hit by lightning.

 

[IceHole]

Buying equipment is the luck of the draw if it earns its keep or just buying someone's headache.

Have seen some stuff at Ritchie 3, 4+ times. Gets bought, buyer ends up putting it back in the auction in a year or two... or sometimes it never even left the yard!

I have a little 941B that I bought over 2 years ago for maybe $2k, it's still sitting exactly where it was dropped off.
Allegedly ran fine at the auction but by the time I got it, no one could get it going.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

More and more, I'm beginning to feel like the person that sold this machine was aware that it was on the cusp of becoming problematic. Literally the fourth day of ownership, had a pilot line go.

The mechanic told me this is a 2001 model, based on a database he subscribes to. So it's not quite as old as I thought. But rubber can and does fail.

My hope is that this is the last of the problems. I am having him work up an estimate to change out all the lines under the house, because it's less costly in the long run. Having one line blow and having to hire the crane to remove the cab is inefficient. But this particular line is in a real tough spot.

I've already got close to $9K into this machine, between tracks, hydraulics, undercarriage work. Some "investment".

And I've got to get my roof repaired. It's a flat roof and requires recently installed decking to be replaced as the liquid rubber coating failed after just 11 months, letting water into the ceilings. All that sheetrock has to come down, insulation replaced, etc. I used to do all this before the heart attack wiped me out.

 

[IceHole]

Not sure on other brands, but in the service books I've been in, Hitachi specs total hose replacement every so many years. I think 5, but I may be wrong.

Pretty sure no one dies that

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Wow, only five years! The mechanic did say that the offsetting factor is that the hoses are shielded from UV rays and should last a lot longer than on some machines where the hoses are easy to get at. I can't imagine anyone changing all the lines every five years. These lasted about 23, based on the what he found out from the serial number of the machine.

 

[Welder Dave]

Hopefully this will be the last major repair. Just take your time and don't over do it with your projects.

 

[IceHole]

Wow, only five years! The mechanic did say that the offsetting factor is that the hoses are shielded from UV rays and should last a lot longer than on some machines where the hoses are easy to get at. I can't imagine anyone changing all the lines every five years. These lasted about 23, based on the what he found out from the serial number of the machine.

Getting up in years means chance of lines going here and there.

Have had 70yr old stuff with mostly factory lines, and 20yr stuff that blew so many lines we just redid them all as the oil, cleanup and down time was costing alot.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Well here's the latest update:

My mechanic has been waiting on fittings for the lines. He said most of the lines except one are ready. I assume the one they are having trouble finding fittings for is the large line that goes up through the rotex.
Every week, I'm told "it will be ready next week" and the week comes and goes and nothing.

The shop in Danbury is supposedly making the lines. I never waited this long for them to make me some lines with banjo fittings 2 years ago, so I don't know why it's taking months to get these lines now.

I'm at a point where I think I need to do some research to find another source for that large hose. I'm going in for triple hernia in a few weeks and once that happens, I'll be laid up for the winter.

I've a large army generator to move off a trailer and onto a pad, but I can't do it without the machine. I'm facing the unpleasant specter of paying half a grand to rent a machine for a day just so I can move this onto the pad so I can finish the wall on the opposite side, or hiring someone with a machine to come out and do this. Either way, big bucks that I don't have. As it is, my wife took out several thousand from her 401K to help me pay the repairs on this excavator. I gave the mechanic $2500 for the hoses to be built, months ago, and I'm still stuck with no way to get work done.

I am looking for another source for the hydraulic hose assemblies for this PC60-7. If anyone knows of a source, I'd like to pass it on to my mechanic. The Longshoremen are likely to strike on Oct 2, which means all supply lines are likely to be delayed for months.

My machine is in pieces, with the cab off of it and the floor jacked up, all exposed to the weather. If it goes all winter like that, likely much of the electrical stuff will be ruined.

 

[Welder Dave]

Put a tarp over it. You could also tape up and/or put plastic bags over the wiring connections. I wonder if Komatsu uses special fittings that aren't near as common as American brands and that's why it's taking so long??
If the generator is the one above or similar, a tow truck could pick it up and move it for you. I worked at job where they used a tow truck to lower a large 1000lbs.+ concrete cutting saw into a basement. A tow truck could lift more than your excavator and should be a lot cheaper than getting a crane or picker truck. I bet if you went to talk to them in person and explained your situation they wouldn't charge too much.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

I did put a tarp on it back in the early summer, but the wind keeps blowing it away. Irregular shape makes trying to tie it down not so easy to do.

I called the place that's making the hoses. It's a 1/4" hose that they are waiting for the fittings for.

A vehicle can back within 15' of the generator, once I move a slab that used to be the roof of the old concrete building that I demolished using a truck and a chain. The slab is 5x6' and 4" thick. It's got sections of wall still attached to it, so it's not sitting flat on the ground. Cannot be driven over and it has to be moved before e vehicle can back in there.

I can't drag it because it will tear up the underground wiring that goes to my east facing solar array. It has to be lifted and flipped over first.

My entire plans for cultivating a field for vegetables and a pasture area for a chicken house are completely off-schedule now. I had planned to cultivate a grass area and build chicken coops this past spring and then another area to raise vegetables so I have a food supply in case of **** this fall. I've got my electrical needs almost ready, once this generator is installed as backup to solar.

With the impending Longshoremen strike Oct 2, I'm afraid we may not get the part at all this year.

A tow truck is a possible option. The only ones that I know of that can lift more than 14,000lbs are the giant ones they use to rescue big rigs that have rolled down embankments, like Pepe's Towing channel on Youtube. I don't think the boom on a regular F350 tow truck reaches out 15' or more that I need. Then it has to swing/pivot and position over the pad.